Completing a Kanban exercise using whiteboards and sticky notes is a great way to visualize how your work flows, create to-do lists and gather the metrics you need to measure and improve processes.  It is also powerful towards workflow optimization by increasing communications and helping you limit work in process.  A Kanban board often leads to the capture of user stories and use cases that can be valuable to in process transformation.  

BusinessOptix allows users the opportunity to digitize the Kanban exercise and link the "cards" or forms within the platform to process maps and other stencils.  Having a digital Kanban board allows users to collaborate in process creation, share the maintenance, track progress and create transparency with business stakeholders and process owners.  

Users must have Author privileges to create a Kanban in BusinessOptix.
Check with your administrator to ensure you have access to create Kanban boards within your library.

Steps to Create a Kanban Board

1. Create a Kanban "card" or form

Start by creating a form.  With BusinessOptix, the flexibility surrounding forms is endless. Here we will give you an insight into what can be done with forms in BusinessOptix. 

Below are all the components that can be used to create a form with a brief explanation of what that are for.

• Text – allows users to input text on a single line only
• Number – allows users to enter a numerical value
• Date – allows users to enter a date
• Choice – allows users to pick one or multiple of the options available
• Editor – allows users to enter multiple lines of text, as well as images and hyperlinks
• Memo – allows users to enter multiple lines of text, however, text cannot be formatted
• Checkbox – allows users to select checkbox as true or false
• Link – allows users to add a link to other content available on the library or from the web
• User – allows user to select another user from a list
• ID – assigns form a number that uniquely identifies it
• Approval – allows the end user to approve or reject form
• Status – allows users to pick one of either red, amber or green
• Calculated – allows calculations based on field values in form
• Label – used to add descriptive text to the form
• Field set – groups related fields under a single sub heading
• Button - used to execute Javascript when they are pressed
• Table - allows users to enter multiple rows of data
• Column - defines the data that can be entered into the table
• Page – encompasses all of the above

From the Home screen, select Forms > Author > New Model > Forms. 

When you have a new form open, insert the desired components for your form, adding details for each one. 

For example, if task name is needed, add a text field to the form. This will open up the text field details where the relevant sub fields need to be filled in. 

 Once this is done, view the form as an HTML output. This is what you should see in the form...

When it comes to the 'Choice' component, you can add a new choice or select from an existing list under the choices section.

By clicking on the 'Edit' button, a list of choices will open where a new choice can be added as a local resource.

 This can then be linked to a model or diagram by adding a link under the references. 

You can specify where the form will be stored once it has been submitted. This can be done by clicking on the Model under the Table of Contents.  Due to limitations of the folder, Kanban will not work if forms or models are stored in My Work folders. 

Once your form has been completed, you can test the output by clicking on View HTML.

2. Create a report

From the Home screen, select Insight > Author > New Model > Report.  

When the new report has been opened, there are a few components are available for building a report: Charts, Tables, Columns, Kanban and Multi-Kanban. A new report starts with a column added.  Click to highlight the Report table under the Table of Contents and a 'Form report' checkbox will appear underneath the Table menu in the property inspector, once ticked the 'Form location' will appear with an edit link button next to it. From this button you can choose the form that was created and saved before.

Once the form model has been chosen, the name of the link will now be displayed next to the form location.

Now, save the report and view it through the HTML view. 

3. Create the Kanban board

From the Components menu, click to add a Kanban Board to the model.  Be sure to name the new Kanban within the property inspector on the right side of the screen.  Click the edit link button next to Form location to add the form created to the board.  This will link the "card" for use with your Kanban Board.

Next create the visual columns of your Kanban board.  Simple boards have columns for "waiting", "in progress" and "completed" (or "to-do", "doing", and "done"). Cards are moved from left to right to show progress and to help coordinate teams performing the work.  Complex Kanban boards can be created that subdivide "in progress" work into multiple columns to visualize the flow of work across an entire process or value stream map.  Cards are moved from top to bottom based on completion within a column to show progress.  Click the Edit Link box in the List field area to link your selection.

Now select to Edit Link next to Category field to select the data by which to prioritize, reflect impact to a project or to colorize groups of cards.  Category Lists is connected to the Colors array in property inspector which you can choose up to 12 color categories for visualization based on order of choices in the linked selection or value of the selection itself.  (eg. if a list of choices is available from the data, the top choice in the list will reflect as the top choice from Colors array options. If only one value is chosen, all cards will carry the same color as the top choice in the Colors list.)

Use the Sorting options to correctly sort cards on the board to properly reflect the visualization.  The Data array allows you to select extra data values for text placement inside of or around the Kanban card to view. 

 When complete, save your model and select the HTML Output to view the Kanban Board and accompanying report.